For Talented 20, 19 Is The Magic Number

Students Will Have To Take Remedial Classes If They Do Not Have 19 Credits In Certain Core Academic Courses.

February 27, 2000|By Maria T. Padilla of The Sentinel Staff

There are 19 students working hard to get from point A to point B in Corrine Fennesy's remedial reading class at Valencia Community College.

But in this case, it's not just an attempt to leap from one sentence to another, but from one college course to another.

Getting past Reading Prep II will propel these students into some regular college courses. But not everyone is happy to be sitting in Fennesy's classroom.

``I realized that I didn't learn anything in high school. I didn't know how to write, and I took honors English all four years,'' said Kari Tracy, 20, a graduate of Lake Howell High School.

Tracy and the others in her class are traveling down the path that some future Talented 20 students also may take.

Under a recently approved overhaul of Florida's college admissions process, Talented 20 students make up the top 20 percent of each high school's graduating class. They are guaranteed admission to a state university - provided they also have certain credits in core academic courses.

The new system replaces a process that used race, ethnicity or gender as factors in admissions.

The point of the Talented 20 program is to bring as many minority students into four-year colleges as possible, while also remaining race-neutral. However, the program may expose discrepancies in students' academic preparation. That's because the quality of education varies among public schools, which each year are graded on a scale of A to F.

``If you go to a D or F school and ask what percentage of top 20 students need remediation, it might be high. But you have to work with those schools,'' said James Hitt, president of the University of Central Florida.

Working with public schools to produce a diverse group of Talented 20 is a crucial issue among college presidents and the state Board of Regents. They worry about what percentage of minority students will make it into the Talented 20. And once students cross the university threshold, how well will they perform?

Working both ends of this issue won't be easy, at least in the early years of the Talented 20 program. Universities will be scrambling to take what qualified minority students they can get, while also getting the word out to future students that they have work to do.

Most state data indicate minority students - with the exception of Asians - are the least prepared. Blacks and Hispanics make up 72 percent of the student population in D and F schools. They also tend to have lower grade-point averages. The lower the grade-point average, the greater the likelihood that students don't have the 19 credits in such core subjects as English, math, science and foreign language that are necessary for admission into one of Florida's 10 public universities.

For example, of blacks and Hispanics who obtain a high school diploma, less than half have the 19 credits, while two-thirds or more of non-Hispanic whites, Asians and Native Americans have that many. A student can graduate without the 19 credits.

At a recent regents meeting at UCF, state Education Commissioner Tom Gallagher suggested that guidance counselors need to do a better job of encouraging students to take the 19 credits.

``This is a major job of ours,'' Gallagher said. He and other university officials indicated public schools will be feeling more pressure on this issue in the months and years ahead, especially because the regents already have determined that all low-performing high schools in Florida offer the academic classes.

The concern over the 19 credits was so great that at the recent regents meeting Frederick Humphries, president of historically black Florida A&M University, proposed that the credit requirement be phased in over several years for the Talented 20 students. Other college presidents appeared to agree. But the regents did not buy into the idea, stating it would signal a lowering of university standards.

The fact that few minorities have the 19 credits helps explain why some disproportionately require remedial classes - although there are only six minority students in Fennesy's class.

Hitt, other university presidents and the regents are confident that, overall, Talented 20 students won't require remedial work. They reason that a student at or near the top of his or her graduating class, by definition, is well prepared. Still, remediation is a big issue in higher education.

A survey by the state Board of Regents of 600 colleges and universities nationwide showed 84 percent provide remedial classes.

In Florida, the percentage of students requiring remedial classes varies from 1 percent at the University of Florida to 29 percent at Florida A&M. At UCF the figure is 2 percent, second-lowest in the state.

The numbers are higher for community colleges, reflecting their open admissions policy.

Under a pact with the state university system, Florida's community colleges provide remedial classes for students attending the state's universities. That's expected to continue under the Talented 20 program. Standardized test scores will determine which students land in remedial classes.

``We stand ready to coordinate with the Board of Regents,'' said Dennis Freytes, a VCC trustee.